The Runaways
by Mika Minx
Summary: What happens when you just want to get away from it all - away from college and people who are nothing like you knew before? Do you become complacent and just accept things the way they are? Or what about run away with your best friend? (This story is a future fic that picks up about 4 years after the original series; does not involve Code Lyoko: Evolution)


The fact that he'd woken up at 2 am so urgently with no real reason was the first sign that something was wrong. The second was his phone, buzzing incessantly under the covers. It took some digging, but Odd found the noisy thing. He didn't even have to read the caller ID to know who it was.

"Hey, Princess."

"Odd," the girl on the other line breathed. Odd knew that specific tone of voice. It was the same one she'd used when he had to talk her down from the factory roof two years ago. He knew something was off.

"Is something wrong?"

"I don't… really know." Her voice got soft. She sounded far away, but like she was fighting for every word.

Odd placed his feet on the floor, teetering on the edge of the bed, his toes nervously curling and uncurling. "Where are you? Do you want me to come get you?"

"I'm at the old house." There was a pause. "I just… I need to get out of here."

"Okay, I'm coming over. I'll be there in ten minutes, okay? I'll see you soon."

"See you soon." She hung up.

Odd stood up and starting fishing through the pile of clean clothes he'd forgotten to put away the night before. He threw on a pair of jeans over his boxers and a sweatshirt over his T-shirt. He didn't bother turning on the light as he searched the dark apartment for his keys and wallet. It wasn't much, but it was functional enough to get him through living alone with no real plan for the future.

As he made his way to his car parked on the next street over, a million thoughts rushed through Odd's head. Late night calls from Aelita had always been relatively common; a touch of familiarity in a sea of ever-changing reality. This time just seemed different.

She was sitting just inside the front door. It took Odd a minute to spot her, legs curled up against her chest as the dim light skirted through her short hair. Odd saw her shrink away from his headlights as he pulled up to the Hermitage. As he parked next to the house and got out of the car, he watched to see if she would get up to greet him. She didn't. As he walked closer, he saw his best friend curled up in a ball, legs pulled all the way up to her chest. She didn't look up as he approached.

"Alright, I'm here. Let's go," he said.

She didn't look up, instead watching her feet as she dug small holes in the ground with her toes.

"I… I didn't even tell you where I wanted to go…" Her voice wasn't anymore than a whisper. They both wondered the last time she'd had anything to drink.

"Does it matter?" He followed the statement with a wry smile and a step inside. The house wasn't welcoming, he could tell, and he couldn't even see past the couch she was sitting on, blocking the entry to the front hallway. There wasn't much to the front room, either, apart from her. Probably some mildew hidden in the corners and splintered wood under the carpet, but they both knew the house hadn't been touched in years. Even when they were kids the house was falling apart; God knows what state it was now. The way he saw it, the faster they get out the better because who knew how long the frame would even stay standing.

"I shouldn't have called you." She didn't move.

"Well, you did," he said and laughed a little, pulling a cigarette out of his pocket. "And I'm going to stay here because I'm confident that I should."

She rested her nose on her knees to hide her small smile, watching the end of his cigarette glow brighter than the moon outside.

"How long have you been here anyway?" he asked from his position sitting in the doorway, blowing tobacco clouds into the darkness.

"I don't know… left school this morning and came here. However much time is in-between then and now."

He sighed through his nose, the smoke making him look like a dragon. "Please tell me I don't have to drive you all the way back to Nice." His comment was followed by a pleading smile. Aelita's eyes glimmered, though she still didn't look up.

"No, not specifically." She drew circles with her pointer finger on the floor next to her. "I don't really want to go back. Not to anything familiar."

"So you're just going to let that scholarship go to waste? Weren't you going to change the world with some neurochemical miracle or something?" He stomped the cigarette butt into the thin carpet.

"I don't know… I'm not sure of anything anymore, you know? Not after everything that's happened." She was sitting cross-legged now; her eyes tired and bottom lip bloody from her bad habit of biting it.

"Yeah, yeah, I get you," he smiled and stood up, using the door frame half as support for his exhausted figure, and half so he could keep this "cool college dropout" look going, even if just to make her laugh. And he would make her laugh. "So are we going?"

She smiled. "Going where?"

"Nowhere in particular."


End file.
